By: Anthony Morelli
Gun owners are waiting with anticipation for Trump to take office.
No one knows exactly what to expect.
But this major change in D.C. could end up being the thing that ruins gun control.
Democrats have reacted to the news that Donald Trump won the presidency in wildly different ways that show just how divided the party is right now.
Some have reacted with shock and horror, and by doubling down on the most extreme positions that they have held in recent years.
Others have responded more gracefully and with olive branches towards bipartisanship, which bodes somewhat better for what the next few years are going to look like.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) has been one of the most anti-gun members of Congress for quite some time now, but he is apparently one of the people who is taking the news more calmly.
He said something at a recent Senate hearing that caught people’s attention in a surprising way.
And it could indicate that he will back off of some of his more aggressive pushes for gun control during the upcoming Trump administration.
According to The Truth About Guns, “The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing titled How Bump Stocks and Other Conversion Devices are Amplifying the Gun Violence Epidemic, and Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) struck a noticeably different tone than his usual combative anti-Second Amendment style, seeking instead to offer to work together with Republicans in the new Congress when majority control flips sides.”
If this change in tone is an indication of how the next four years are going to go, things may be on the verge of getting a lot better for the Second Amendment community.
Durbin holds a lot of sway in Congress, and if he ends up tamping down the push against the Second Amendment, then there could be rough waters ahead for gun control.
The article continues, “‘I hope to be able to work with the new incoming chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Chuck Grassley,’ said Chairman Durbin.”
“The subject of the hearing after all was devices that are overwhelmingly used by criminals to commit acts of violence by those skirting existing laws.”
Durbin, of course, did not completely abandon his support for gun control during the hearing.
The article goes on to say, “Starting things off to set the tone for the hearing, Chairman Durbin used a favored play call during these gun control hearings. He played a video montage of numerous heinous actions committed by criminals misusing firearms as a way of arguing why more laws are needed on law-abiding Americans.”
Overall, however, it seems like Durbin and the Democrats have been humbled a bit and are going to take on a different tone, at least for the time being.
While they still support gun control and haven’t abandoned that, they may not push for it with quite the same level of aggression.
This means that Second Amendment supporters in Congress may not be under siege as much as they have been in the past.